BitTorrent is open source so anyone can make a BitTorrent client or create a website that allows users to download Torrent files. As a company, BitTorrent owns the BitTorrent and uTorrent file sharing Torrent clients. Collectively BitTorrent.com and uTorrent.com receive 60 million unique visits a month.

Many people might not realize it, but on both of these BitTorrent-owned websites, users won’t find a single link to any kind of pirated material.

Because BitTorrent is open source, the technology is available for anyone to use. This is how websites like isohunt.com and thepiratebay.com have grown in popularity as the primary way to share pirated material through Torrent clients. Popular websites like Twitter, Facebook, Etsy and even the Human Genome Project all use BitTorrent for legitimate purposes like sharing large files or pushing updates to servers.

Because BitTorrent is completely open, the company doesn’t have the ability to restrict how people use the protocol it developed.

“We could literally shut down BitTorrent tomorrow and that ecosystem will still exist,” said Mason. “Most people think we’re some kind of file-sharing or piracy-sharing website.”

BitTorrent is in an interesting situation because the company has become the steward of a protocol which has become the back bone of the internet. Torrents actually move 20 to 40 per cent of the entire world’s internet traffic, which is one reason the protocol has become a large facilitator of piracy. Over the last 10 years, the term BitTorrent has incorrectly become a verb synonymously associated with stealing copyrighted content on the internet.

“We’re one part of the equation. If you’re trying to steal a movie with BitTorrent and, frankly, there are so many better ways out there that are better like straight up streaming things… This is our bad for not being more vocal about this over the last 10 years,” said Mason.

BitTorrent Live could potentially revolutionize the way we stream content.

Since BitTorrent, up until about 18 months ago, was largely a company driven by engineers, the public’s perception of what BitTorrent actually is was never a big part of the company’s focus. Lately, though, BitTorrent has been trying to change its image. The company is also developing a new streaming content protocol called BitTorrent Live, which has the potential to revolutionize the way we stream content on the internet.

But this time, instead of adopting an open source approach, BitTorrent has opted to keep this technology proprietary.

BitTorrent has also created a new bundle program designed to be the company’s first step towards creating a more efficient way of getting content to consumers on the internet. This new gated file format allows Torrent creators to add a gateway to their product, prompting downloaders to either add their email, pay a fee or participate in an affiliate program. It’s also part of a relatively new initiative by BitTorrent to point users to legitimate content.

BitTorrent is currently even in talks with major film studios about taking advantage of this new bundle protocol.